However, during the conversation, Mickey mentions that he has been keeping bees in the basement as part of a recent business venture, much to the couple's dismay.
On the night of the party, Ted and Robin arrive in the midst of an argument, which they put on hold as they enter the house.
In the living room, Lily stresses about how the party is going despite Marshall's reassurance until his boss Garrison Cootes informs him that they need to go back to work.
In the dining room, Barney has eaten all the spring rolls as he converses with a woman he deems is crazy until he sees that she is attractive.
In the kitchen, Ted and Robin continue their argument after putting the food they brought to the party in the oven and setting a five-minute timer.
As she warns him again not to have sex with Geraldine, the gouda cheese that Marshall served in the previous scene is accidentally knocked to the floor and almost immediately covered in mice.
Marshall quits out of desperation, telling Cootes he needs to relax and find a hobby if he does not want to work himself to death, then leaves to serve the cheese.
Realizing Marshall may have been right, Cootes, at the advice of Mickey, decides to don the beekeeper's outfit in an attempt to take up a hobby.
However, based on Barney's apocryphal advice moments earlier, Mickey has doused the suit in kerosene to repel the bees.
When Marshall attempts to re-enter the house, he realizes that Cootes has inadvertently allowed the bees to escape their basement enclosure.
[5] Ethan Alter from Television Without Pity gave the episode a C and said that "for all the energy on display there weren't a lot of laughs".